While trying to get ready for school, I have realized it is somewhat difficult to buy books for my courses without a syllabus. Because I am not made of money, I like to buy only the books I need right away and then buy other books as needed. However, many professors only post their syllabus online a few days before school starts on even on the first day of class but expect you to read or do an assignment from a particular text by, let's say, the next class. If you are smart and are buying books from places like Amazon instead of the UMBC bookstore, there is almost no way ou're going to get that book by the next day. This causes you to fall behind on your assignments, all because you didn't have a syllabus ahead of time. I, like many other students, cannot simply afford to just buy every book on the list in order to be prepared, as I assume some of you are going to say. So my question is, do you think professors should be required to have their syllabus available to students online, perhaps by August 1 (for the fall semester) or is this an unreasonable request?

~This is just a question for discussion; I don't plan on complaining to the academic department or anything.~